Editing Cassander (section)

== Legacy ==
[[File:Thessaloniki_and_Cassandreia.png|thumb|Locations of [[Thessaloniki]] and [[Cassandreia]] in modern Greece.]]
Cassander stood out amongst the [[Diadochi]] in his hostility to Alexander's memory.<ref name="fox469" /> [[Arrian]] later reported that he could not pass a statue of Alexander without feeling faint.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Arrian. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1152271824 |title=Anabasis of Alexander Or, the History of the Wars and Conquests of Alexander the Great. |date=2019 |publisher=Forgotten Books |isbn=978-0-243-71825-2 |chapter=7.23.22 |oclc=1152271824}}</ref> Cassander has been perceived to be ambitious and unscrupulous, and even members of his own family were estranged from him.<ref>Fox, Robin Lane. ''Alexander the Great'', p. 475, 2004 Ed.</ref> However, historians like John D. Grainger argue this characterization owes much to stories spread by his rivals.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grainger |first=John D. |title=Antipater's dynasty : Alexander the Great's regent and his successors |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-5267-3088-6 |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |location=Yorkshire |pages=138 |oclc=1041510654}}</ref>

Cassander was responsible for the deaths of more Argeads than other Diadochi, ([[Alexander IV of Macedon|Alexander IV]], [[Roxana]], and Alexander's supposed illegitimate son [[Heracles of Macedon|Heracles]], as well as allowing [[Olympias]] to be killed by a Macedonian assembly), he was not the only one willing to kill Alexander's relatives: Polyperchon and Antigonus were just as willing to do the same when it benefitted them.<ref>Green, Peter. ''Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age''. p. 38, 2007 Ed.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grainger |first=John D.|publisher=Pen & Sword Military|title=Antipater's dynasty : Alexander the Great's regent and his successors |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-5267-3088-6 |location=Yorkshire |pages=179–181 |oclc=1041510654}}</ref> From [[Numismatics|numismatic]] evidence, Evan Pitt argues that Cassander's actions until 311 BC were motivated more by self-preservation and maintenance of his own power rather than royal ambition and rivalry to Alexander the Great.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Pitt |first=Evan |date=2019 |title=An Ill-defined Rule: Cassander's Consolidation of Power |url=https://revistes.uab.cat/karanos/article/view/v2-pitt |journal=Karanos: Bulletin of Ancient Macedonian Studies |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=33–42|doi=10.5565/rev/karanos.26 |s2cid=214304820 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Cassander's decision to restore [[Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)|Thebes]], which had been destroyed by Alexander, was perceived at the time to be a snub to the deceased king, though it also had the [[realpolitik]] effect of providing a power base for Cassander in [[Boeotia]].<ref>Green, Peter. ''Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age''. pp. 40-41, 2007 Ed.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grainger |first=John D. |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |title=Antipater's dynasty : Alexander the Great's regent and his successors |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-5267-3088-6 |location=Yorkshire |pages=156 |oclc=1041510654}}</ref>
[[File:Kassander_king_of_Macedonia_kingdom_of_greece.jpg|thumb|Coin of Cassander minted after 310 BCE, displaying Alexander or Cassander wearing the lion pelt cloak. Reverse with the Greek inscription: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΚΑΣΣΑΝΔΡΟΥ, ''Basileōs Kassandrou'', "of King Cassander".|250x250px]]
Like the other Diodochoi, Cassander participated in the appropriation of regal iconography which linked him to Alexander the Great.<ref name=":1" /> Other Diadochi depicted themselves and Alexander on their coins in profile with varying attributes, such as elephant-hide headdresses or horns; Cassander followed Alexander's [[Alexander the Great#Coinage|own precedent]] and had himself or the dead king wearing a lion-skin cloak stamped on one side of his coins.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alonso Troncoso |first=Víctor |title=After Alexander: the time of the Diadochi (323-281 bc) |date=2013 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-84217-512-5 |editor1=Troncoso, Víctor Alonso |editor2= Anson, Edward M. |location=Oxford, UK; Oakville, CT |pages=357–363 |chapter=The Diodochi and the Zoology of Kingship: The Elephants}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sheedy |first=Kenneth Alan |title=Alexander and the Hellenistic kingdoms: coins, image and the creation of identity the Westmoreland collection [exhibition, Museum of Ancient cultures, Macquarie university, opened on the 23rd of November 2007 at the start of the Second Biennal conference of the Numismatic association of Australia... to the 21 November 2008] |date=2007 |publisher=Numismatic association of Australia |others=Australian centre for ancient numismatic studies |isbn=978-0-646-48150-0 |series=Ancient coins in Australian collections |volume=1 |pages=15–16 |chapter=Magically back to life: some thoughts on ancient coins and the study of Hellenistic royal portraits}}</ref> These royal iconographies established by Alexander and continued by his immediate successors set patterns for royal coinage which were influential and enduring across the Mediterranean and West Asia.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lawton |first=Carol C. |date=1996 |title=Hellenistic Coin Portraits |url=http://www2.lawrence.edu/dept/art/BUERGER/ESSAYS/HELLENIS.HTML |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www2.lawrence.edu}}</ref> Also of lasting significance was Cassander's refoundation of [[Therma]] into [[Thessaloniki|Thessalonica]], naming the city after his wife. Cassander also founded [[Cassandreia]] upon the ruins of [[Potidaea]], as well as the city of [[Antipatreia]] in the Aspros Valley.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grainger |first=John D. |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |title=Antipater's dynasty : Alexander the Great's regent and his successors |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-5267-3088-6 |location=Yorkshire |pages=156–157 |oclc=1041510654}}</ref>